Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

April 2008

Outraged

As a veteran, I am outraged by Time Magazine’s desecration of Joe Rosenthal’s famous photograph of the U.S. Marines raising the American Flag on Iwo Jima.

outrageWe never cease to be amazed by the inability of the left to feel shame and its lack of reverence for America and those who defend its freedoms, including the right to be stupid. The cover of the April 21 issue of Time, taking the famous Joe Rosenthal photo of Marines planting our flag on the blood-soaked island of Iwo Jima and replacing our flag with a tree, qualifies for obscenity of the year.

It echoes the greenie theme first advanced by Al Gore in his book Earth In The Balance that the internal combustion engine is the greatest threat in the history of mankind. Gore and Bill Clinton have both said that global warming is ultimately a greater threat than terrorism… This trivializing of the sacrifice of American blood and treasure to defend freedom ignores the fact that in World War II we faced a real enemy with a terrible agenda. The bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor were quite real, not the output of some badly fed computer model.

‘Global warming may or may not be a significant threat to the United States,’ Tim Holbert, a spokesman for the American Veterans Center, [said]: ‘The Japanese Empire on February 1945, however, certainly was, and this photo trivializes the most recognizable moment of one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. history’.”

—Investor’s Business Daily

I call on veterans and others outraged by this to boycott Time-Warner Corporation! If you subscribe to Road Runner, get another high-speed carrier. If you get cable from Time-Warner, it’s time to look into DirecTV, which, by the way, is owned by the parent company of the Fox News Channel. Most of all, never, ever buy another copy of Time.

Hat tip to The Patriot Post.

24 Apr 2008 by Global Warming Media Whacko Politics

The Return of the Cosmos

I wrote a post last May about cosmos flowers that included a little background; I’ll repeat it here:

Sometimes called Mexican Asters, cosmos were grown by Spanish priests in their mission gardens in Mexico. The evenly placed petals led them to christen the flower “Cosmos,” the Greek word for harmony or ordered universe. Cosmos, like many of our warm weather annuals such as marigolds, originated in Mexico and South America.

These are currently flourishing on the patio. Click the image to enlarge.

more-cosmos.jpg

23 Apr 2008 by Home & Garden Photography

Resemblance

Damsel takes photos of our arsenal before, during and after the weekly cleaning and maintenance session. She took a photo of the Remington 870 trigger plate assembly; when I looked at the photo, it reminded me of something completely unrelated.

Is it just me, or does the assembly resemble the profile of an airborne Canadian honker?

trigger plate assembly and Canadian goose in flight

22 Apr 2008 by Critters Firearms

The Knack

I stated on our not-very-political personal blog that I was a daily reader of the on-line Dilbert cartoon. Recently, the folks at www.dilbert.com upgraded their site to a nice new interactive format. One of the many new features is an animated cartoon strip. Another feature challenges the reader to produce a better punch line than Scott Adams, the artist that produces Dilbert.

Which brings me to this little animation, “The Knack,” that pokes a little fun at some of us who are a bit on the nerdy side. I’m not sure where this originated, since I got it in an email from an associate. At any rate, I think it’s worth the one-minute run time to learn about little Dilbert’s “Knack.”

21 Apr 2008 by Humor Media

Stripping the Remington 870

After today’s target practice, we did the usual strip and clean routine for all the guns. I took this photo of the Remington 870 broken down into pieces. After looking at it later, it occurred to me that this is the way they would have you store your long guns in Washington, D.C. According to the regulations there, you may own a shotgun but it must be stored disassembled while in your home.

“‘Scuse me, Mr. intruder, while I go and put my shotgun together so I can defend my home.”

parts is parts

Hopefully, the Supreme Court will rectify the D.C. gun insanity in the near future. I also am hopeful that some of that goodness will rub off on some similar gun insanity in other places, especially California.

20 Apr 2008 by Firearms Second Amendment

What I’m Reading

This week my signed hard-cover copy of Michael Yon’s “Moment of Truth in Iraq” arrived. Today, I started reading it while enjoying a spring day on our patio.

book

We have been supporting Michael since his first foray into Iraq. We will continue to do so.

From today’s Michael Yon Blog:

momentoftruth31.jpgWe have sold all 5,200 signed copies of my new book Moment of Truth in Iraq, but I am making a special trip very soon to the printer to sign 2,000 more. I apologize for the slight delay in shipping. Once I have signed the additional books they will be shipped immediately.

Also, Amazon.com has been sold out, but a couple of large shipments are on their way, and Amazon will have books again soon. Moment of Truth hit #6 on the Amazon Bestseller List and then went out of stock. Bad timing!

It’s great to be back in America, but I got measured today for new body armor and helmet. Won’t be long until I am back over there.

Have a great weekend.

Michael

19 Apr 2008 by Islamic Terrorism Media Military

A Beech 18 and a Nice Cloudscape

Damsel got this nice photo of a vintage Beech 18 as it flew overhead today. She says that the sky was filled with nice wispy clouds all day and it was pretty nice. Click on the image for the 800×600 pixel image.

For me, the B-18 is a nostalgic symbol of my days in Naval Aviation. I flew co-pilot in one of these for a former Blue Angel pilot who invited several sailors to join him on a currency flight. Later in my (short) Navy career, I maintained avionics on these and other reciprocating (piston) engine airplanes and helicopters. The military designation for the Beech 18 is C-45.

beech-18.jpg

Wikipedia has this and more about this venerable aircraft.

The Beechcraft Model 18, or “Twin Beech”, as it was better known, is a 6-11 place, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft that was manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. This model saw service during and after World War II in a number of versions including the United States Army Air Forces C-45 Expeditor, AT-7 Navigator, AT-11 Kansan, and for the United States Navy, UC-45J Navigator and the SNB-1 Kansan. An estimated aggregate total time in service for the aircraft time is in excess of 20,000,000 hours of flight time.

The Beech 18 is the most modified US-certified aircraft design, with over 200 FAA approved Supplemental Type Certificates on record for the aircraft.

The aircraft uses have included aerial spraying, sterile bug release, fish seeding, dry ice cloud seeding, aerial fire fighting, airborne mail pick up and drop, ambulance service, numerous movie productions, skydiving, freight, gun and drug smuggling, engine test bed, skywriting and banner tow. A number of Model 18s were operated as passenger aircraft, The Model 18 was also the first aircraft flown by Philippine Airlines, Asia’s first and oldest airline. Many are now in private hands as highly prized collectibles.

18 Apr 2008 by Aviation Photography

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